How I Wish Someone Would Invent a Gran(D)Ma Phone 😊
Last week, after 12 wonderful years together, my phone died. I have to say it was a little traumatic. Contacts lost, photos, personal data, but mostly the familiarity of how it works. I knew which tune meant I had a text, or a call, where to find my step counter, how to switch on my light in the middle of the night, or scroll through photos.
So, it was with a little trepidation I took myself off to the phone shop to choose a successor. The choice was enormous – number of cameras, size, colour, price, and that was before you got into what the phone actually did!
I spent a while choosing before deciding:
- Not to take out a mortgage.
- To choose the (seemingly) simplest.
- To get the least gadgets possible.
- To buy the pretty pink colour … obviously!
Could I Learn How to Use It?
After my purchase, I was given the opportunity to meet with a man who would explain the phone to me. I jumped at the chance. Instead of me wading through instructions or YouTube videos, a nice man would explain it all to me. How lovely!
Except, I was sent to a table with one poor man trying to explain to a group of women, mostly my age, how the phone worked. Each, slightly dazed, looking more perplexed as his individual explanations went on. Press this, hold that down, scroll here, click this, enter that …
I looked at my all singing, all dancing phone. It had more apps and functions than I had ever seen. I am sure if I had asked Siri (if I could find his button) he would have made me a cup of tea.
I had no need for Playground or Movie Star, I didn’t want a find my iPhone button. I have absolutely no use for spreadsheets, no idea what Keynote was, kept a journal by hand, and couldn’t even begin to imagine what Garage Band was!
Future Inventors
So, for any future inventors out there, please set about designing a phone perfect for me. 😊
Instead of Find my iPhone, I think Find my Glasses might be better. I am sure many of my steps throughout the day are made looking for my glasses (often found on my head).
My ideal phone wouldn’t mysteriously go back to the screen page every 30 seconds, when I was just thinking what I was going to write, or who I was going to call.
After a little afternoon nap, it would wake me with a gentle story or some lovely music, rather than an alarm that went on forever.
Hotspot would stay on, how do I know when I need to find some extremely important piece of information, such as ‘why is that caterpillar hairy’?
Mostly, it would be simple, easy to understand, and grow with me as my knowledge increased. I don’t want to be a dinosaur … but I also don’t want to be a mad professor – at least in the beginning.
One Week On…
So, my new phone and I are slowly making friends. I guess at this stage we are more casual acquaintances. I am not brave enough to question her or ask her to make changes. Hopefully that will come as our friendship, and my confidence, grows.
I now have a contact list of 8, and 3 new photos. I still freak out when I, somehow, make an emergency button appear, half expecting police and ambulance to appear at my location.
For all the fear it evokes in me, part of me loves the challenge, and the I-can-do-this-at-my-age. One of the ladies in the phone shop asked if she could take a photo of us both to send to her kids, with the latest iPhones in our hands. 📱
Wonder what will be on my next phone… if I am here 12 years from now. 😀
Join the Conversation:
Have you updated your phone recently? What do you miss most about your old one? What would you love to add to your new one?
Tags Technology
Good article – my phone is 4 years old. My daughter asked me if I wanted to upgrade or get a new phone recently. I looked at her and said no thank you! I have no interest in a new phone. I’m enjoying knowing or at least think I know where everything is on this phone. There are times where I have to look up how to do something on this phone still but honestly when you are only doing something once or twice, who recalls where it is located!
Hi Lauren, thanks for joining the conversation and your kind words :) That sounds exactly like me! I have no need of so many of the things on there, I almost feel it is a waste :) Lily x
I am a senior too & use an Android phone. Most important is to have your contacts & photos saved in Google to the “cloud” which can be retrieved as required. My priorities for a cell phone are to text, talk & take photos. I don’t need software expertise to handle that, so keep it simple. Always get someone at the phone store to set up your new cell, don’t bother trying to do it yourself.
Hi Jacqui, thanks for joining the conversation. Some very good information :) Lily x
I like and dislike my IPhone! I love FaceTime and seeing loved ones who don’t live here! My phone has taken the place of my computer! GPS is def nec for me! I don’t want a text and never a conversation where I don’t hear a voice! I like simpler appliances and not a zillion stations on the tv! Not nec for me but have to live with some of it!
Hi Julie, Hi Diane, thanks for joining the conversation. I do too! It is interesting hearing how people use their phones in different ways. I barely use mine, as most things are on my laptop! Lily x
I wish someone who develop technology to block these incessant spam calls. After the first ring I block them yet they still manage to leave me a voicemail.
Surely the so-called communication companies could do something about this.
Hi Kathy, Hi Diane, thanks for joining the conversation. I agree, they are rather annoying. I never answer my phone unless I know who is calling, and don’t have voicemail on. If I see a missed call from someone I know I just call them back. Lily x